Galvis gets four hits, but IronPigs fall to Durham

Freddy Galvis had four hits in the IronPigs' loss to Durham on Tuesday.

Freddy Galvis had four hits in the IronPigs' loss to Durham on Tuesday. (Jimi McCullian, THE MORNING CALL)

Jeff Schuler, Of The Morning Call

Freddy Galvis opened the 2014 season on the Phillies roster, the third consecutive season he began the season in a major league uniform.

A month later in early May, after a brutal 2-for-42 start at the plate, the 24-year-old utility infielder was sent back to Triple-A to "get at-bats and gather himself a little bit," Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg said at the time.

But two days after arriving back at Coca-Cola Park, Galvis slid into a wall at Coca-Cola Park while chasing a foul ball and suffered a broken left clavicle that kept him off the field until after the All-Star break.

Now, Galvis is just starting to shake off the rust. Tuesday afternoon he had four hits, including his first home run, in an 8-5 loss to Durham before the season's 13th sellout crowd of 10,100 at Coca-Cola Park.

"It's starting over, man," said Galvis, who also missed a large chunk of spring training when he contracted MRSA. "I didn't play that much in spring training, I didn't play that much in the big leagues, and here I play one game and then I got hurt."

"His first couple weeks here were kind of like spring training, just trying to get his legs back under him," IronPigs manager Dave Brundage said. "I know he's mentioned a few times early on that his legs were heavy and he was just trying to get his legs underneath him; now, he just wants to play every day. He wants those at-bats because he's feeling better."

Galvis doubled and scored ahead of a Maikel Franco double in the first inning Tuesday, singled and scored in the third, singled again in the fourth, grounded out sharply to first in the sixth and pulled a two-run homer just inside the right-field foul line in the eighth.

The four hits were one shy of his career high set in 2008 at Lakewood. It also was his second multi-hit game in his last four starts. He is 8-for-21 over his last five games, a .381 clip, and he's hitting .271 (19-for-70) since his return.

"I'm feeling much better, getting more at-bats, getting more confidence," he said. "Everything's going good right now."

"Freddy had a great day — five hard-hit balls today," Brundage said. "You can see the timing [coming back] at the plate, he's got better pitch recognition — he's laying off pitches and hence getting better pitches to hit — and he showed some patience, working deeper into the counts. That's why he's getting better pitches, because he's seeing more pitches."

The top four hitters in the lineup — Cesar Hernandez, Galvis, Franco and Russ Canzler — combined for 10 of the IronPigs' 12 hits, scored all five runs and knocked in four. Franco continued his hot surge with two hits — he's hitting .324 in his last 19 games, with five doubles, three homers, 15 RBIs and 10 runs scored, and .336 in 29 games since July 1 with 26 RBIs, 11 doubles and four homers.

Jeff Manship got the call for a spot start for the IronPigs after the Phillies took the scheduled starter, David Buchanan, to fill in for Cliff Lee tonight against Houston.

Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez, working back to-back games for the first time with the IronPigs, gave up his first Triple-A runs in the eighth inning on a double, an intentional walk, back-to-back singles and an error — all with two outs.

"I didn't think he was as sharp," Brundage said. "Last night, he really established his fastball; today, he got a little offspeed happy and didn't command that fastball in the strike zone. He was one pitch away from putting up a zero in his inning, but he kind of labored through today.

"His stuff was OK; it was more the thought process. Today he missed with a couple fastballs and then went primarily with offspeed pitches — his curve ball, his slider, some change-ups — and threw a few more breaking balls than I would like to see."

In all, Brundage used five pitchers, including Phillippe Aumont, who threw three scoreless innings in his first game since returning from a dismal stint with the Phillies.

"We were basically hoping for three from one of those first three guys," Brundage said, referring to Manship, Aumont and Tyler Knigge (1-3), who took the loss by allowing the tying and go-ahead runs in the sixth on three hits.

Aumont allowed two hits, walked two and struck out two. His ball/strike ratio (24 strikes in 45 pitches) wasn't great, but Brundage was pleased with the quality of his pitches.

"He threw well, and there's just something amiss from the way he pitches here and the way he has pitched up there [in the majors]," Brundage said. "Whether it's between his ears or just plain bad luck or whatever it might be, but today he threw quality strikes down in the zone, had movement on his fastball and got groundball outs.

"Just because you throw 95 [mph] doesn't mean you don't have to throw quality pitches. At the big-league level, 95 don't mean anything. It's the location and the quality of the pitch."